I've been messing around with HDR again! I was reading about this thing called the Orton Effect where you combine 2 images, with one being in sharp focus and the other being out of focus. This has now been combined with HDR and this was my first attempt so be kind Sorry it's a bit big but it seems to look better bigger.

What do you think? Too over the top? Too cartoony? Too saturated? Too manipulated? I really like it, but then it maybe just because it's something new for me to play around with!

For what it's worth I think it's too over the top, too cartoony, too saturated and too manipulated. And I kinda like it. I'm not too happy with the halo effect around the building but apart from that it's not too shabby. I haven't tried the technique myself but I will, now that you've planted the seed.

One thing I think is important and is worth repeating. Don't make the mistake of thinking that an image is either HDR or it's not. Why not take that image into Photoshop now and see what can be (un)done? If you do decide to take it further in PS, and this goes for any editing task, be sure to keep the image in TIFF format until you're absolutely happy with it. The only editing I do after JPEG conversion is cropping.

BTW - There is an argument for cropping as the first stage of editing and there is some merit in it. I've always done it last but I have often wondered how the final submission would have looked had I cropped initially. For instance, when looking at an image before cropping you might decide that it needs a tad more saturation, but when you finally crop it you notice that the main picture element which led to the saturation increase is no longer in the image, and so subsequently the image looks rather "overblown". There's more than one way to skin a cat, as they say.

Forgive my terminology. I'm not an "educated" photographer so sometimes I just say things the way I understand them to be, whether it's technically accurate or not. Keep a pinch of salt handy.

Your technique seems to have removed the perspective. It looks more like a primitive-style painting. I don't think you can call something like this over-the-top -- you either like it or not. I find it interesting and think it might be well suited for story illustration.

Very interesting effect. Looks toy like to me, partly due to the color-saturation. But I think the sharp+unsharp has a similar effect to the brain like the reduced dof -approach in the other thread.
Upon further looking into the pic I felt like a headache coming up, perhaps because the eyes try to focus where there is no sharper focus to be had?

Thanks for the feedback guys. Zorro, I know exactly what you mean and I hadn't thought about that before but I can see the logic in it. I know what you mean about pigeon-holing things too....sometimes I put pics through Photomatix and then although the result is good, I think that's not what a HDR picture is supposed to look like it should be like this or like that and then I discard it instead of just working on it as a good image in it's own right.

A friend of mine saw the pic and said, "I don't really understand why you'd want to do this, it's not really photography" and that's quite hard to respond to. I still find it satisfying though, to see something I've created, however extreme it is, from my own pictures.

Anyway, it's a bit of fun and Artizen HDR has got so many more settings and sliders than Photomatix has to play around with so I'm going to keep on going and see what I can come up with.

Thomas....sorry about presenting you with a headache inducing image....I'll post a health warning next time

Just curious, can you keep part of the picture less tweeked? It might be more interesting if you had some people standing on the path in forground that were more conventional as a focal point -- something like that...

I know what you mean Brian, but I don't know if you can do that with Artizen. If you did the Orton effect in Photoshop then you'd be able to use a mask over the people and then they would stay in focus while everything else blurs a bit. Could be interesting!

What do you think? Too over the top? Too cartoony? Too saturated? Too manipulated?

Yes definitely. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing! I quite like the effect. I think that it can't really be called photography anymore but it looks nice nonetheless. I like how the Orton effect has given the photo a "glowing" look.

Hi Graham, that's great I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Do upload some even if you're not happy with them because we might be able to point you in the right direction as to getting them how you want them to look by trying a different technique or applying things differently.

I've kinda got myself hooked on B&W at the moment and I'm currently working on a couple, but they're not quite there yet so I keep going back to them now and again with a fresh eye....praying for some inspiration